'Inhabited by a race of formidable giants': French Explorers, Aborigines, and the Endurance of the Fantastic in the Great South Land, 1803

This paper concerns a very small episode in Australian history that few would be aware of: a failed fishing expedition off Shark Bay, Western Australia, in 1803, which culminated in two cross-cultural encounters between French explorers and local Aboriginal men. The few scholars who are familiar with this incident generally explain it away in a brief sentence or two�for instance Colin Dyer simply states that �the French experienced the usual hostile reception extended in this region' (113)�and then quickly move on to more significant events in the history of French maritime discoveries in Australia. So why am I writing about this seemingly uneventful event?